Instincts
by Aintaru
Summary: A young woman, more animal than human, is rescued from a mutant captivity in this thrilling, new short series. Will the Avengers be able to humanize this young and feral female or will she be out of reach from the ways of man? Mix in some emotions; could be pity, could be hope or- What is going through Hawkeye's mind as he tries to help her? And will more ever come of it?
1. Prologue

**The Animal**

Disorientation.

Cages... Bars... Traps... Cages...

This was the life I knew. Everything was always a haze and there was never any continuous streams of collected memories. The pieces did not stay together. but there was always warmth. There was a constant warmth when there was no pain.

The pain.

It was always sizzling; shocking. And there were always commands. Gestures. I listened... I obeyed... or got killed.

This was the life I knew. This was the life I remembered. This was survival.

Whatever I was; this creature -abomination- that I recognized myself as, I knew I was female. It was natural instinct after all. I was always caged with another thing as well; and, somehow I'd always converse with it. No. With him. The other creature in the cage was not like me, but somehow (I'm not sure how) we were able to communicate. We spoke to each other without the use of anything physical. It was like a mental connection.

We were both protective of each other in the confinements of our unfortunate home. There were many times my companion could have gone on without me. He was not... tied; forced to this place. There were no bindings or constrictions around his neck or legs; unlike me.

A banging and deafening sound brought us to attention. "Behave now. Don't want another whippin', do ya?" A voice spoke from afar to the whole area we found ourselves in. Miniature burning balls of light illuminated the place, blinding us momentarily to our surroundings as a pair of heavy steps approached and stopped before our cage. A growl emanated from beside me in warning as our gaze fell on the new one I was like. My eyes narrowed as the two legged came closer.

I then heard a beep or clicking noise once before I lost all consciousness; lost my thoughts, my mind... my free will. All in that short moment.

/~/

With a sickening and perverse pleasure, the male outside the cage opened the barred gate and knelt beside the now placate female. "We have company... The unwanted kind," he whispered to her. "Get your friends and destroy them. Kill."

A grunt escaped the female before it transformed into an inhuman growl as the two unlikely companions left the cage. The order was given.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:** Here is the (Clint Barton x Mutant!OC) fic... finally._

 _This was a request submitted by the lovely_ Evaesis _DeviantArt back in May. *le sweatdrop* No one can say I don't warn ahead of time that requests can take forever for me to do (even though the prologue has been complete for quite some time). This particular submission will have 6 pieces in total. Prologue, CH. 1, CH. 2, CH. 3, CH. 4 and an Epilogue. I've decided to make them short versus terribly long like Electrical Malfunction, where Mia comes from, which ranged at over 18 pages just for part 1. (I had to separate the story into two pieces in order to be able to upload it on DeviantArt.) I don't want to lose interest by doing such (especially with a character I like). I also don't want to lose the interest of my readers._

 _I hope you all enjoyed the first bit. I also hope to make you happy, Eva. :3_  
 _Thank you all for reading and I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions._

 _Yours Truly,_  
 _Aora-li_

 _All rights to their respective owners. All I own is the plot. Un-beta'd._


	2. Exploited Discovery Chapter 1 of 4

**Exploited Discovery**

"You sure we're in the right place, Legolas?"

"Affirmative. This is where the Director sent us."

A vision of red and gold flew past the archer as they surveyed the area. Intelligence had received strange reports and sighting of unexplained electrical interference. Apparently, the wild life in the area was no better. Spiked energies of all sorts piqued the interest of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Psychic waves, cosmic waves, unnatural weather patterns.

Currently, two of the Avengers were called to South America, nearing a private reserve. There was a private reserve there with a chieftain refusing to cooperate. Thankfully, they had their expert hacker back at base giving them directions while being fully connected with J.A.R.V.I.S. as well. Her name was Mia, Mia Quincey, and she was Captain's girl. A mutant with both minor electrical and major technological abilities. Who would have guessed he'd fall for a girl like her? It was like an oxymoron to the man of iron.

Tony sighed frustrated as he flew back and forth around the archer. He hated waiting.

 _"Iron Man. Hawkeye. Come in. This is Zettabyte."_ Zettabyte was Mia's moniker among the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives.

"We hear you, Z. What's the news?"

 _"Chieftain Morocco, a.k.a. the Asshole from another planet,"_ Tony chuckled as the archer smirked at the woman's choice of words. _"-has an underground system. I'm still researching as to how and where his funding came from... But it's a Hitler-ized mutant captivity down there. I've already contacted Professor X._ Be extremely careful. _I can't begin to express how dangerous some of those mutants are. Stark, I'll be uploading the data I've collected to you so far. Don't expect immediate back up."_

"Roger that, Z." A disconnection buzzed out.

"Well, seems we're finally off, Oliver Queen. Or do you prefer _Arrow_?"

"You're cheesy, Stark. _Real_ cheesy," the archer grunted, readying his arrows with different tips and precautionary explosives as they trespassed their way into the preserve. A beeping sound alerted Tony that the upload was complete on his side as a full schematic of the area opened on his screen. Stark quickly shared whatever information he would with his partner before a shock wave almost blew both men off their feet.

They both looked around, bewildered and on alert, as they regained their ground and bearings. Tony's visor slipped upward as he made eye contact with the archer before questioning, rhetorically, what in the world had happened. Agreeing to be on their guard, they both made it further in. Clint trekked a good three to five miles by foot as he examined the area. He memorized the heights in different trees that he could use as key point advantages while he hid within the foliage. Tony, on the other hand, flew high above the skies, using his magnified vision to keep track of his partner while concealing his presence.

Finally, they could see the tops of a building above the trees as they came to a stop. "We should camp here, scope the area more while we wait for back up," the archer whispered into his receiver as the location was discovered. Zetta's research was almost spot on, yet somehow, the coordinates she was able to find were off by ten points or so. Strange. She was an expert at hacking...

Tony agreed, quiet motors bringing him down near the archer and into the foliage as they waited... Tony hated waiting.

Approximately seven hours later, much to the chagrin of Clint because of Tony's complaints, movements within the trees and bushes could be heard. The archer immediately notched an arrow but relaxed at the voice of Captain America coming in through the receiver. Natasha, also known as Black Widow, chimed in as well as they exchanged locations and coordinates. Five minutes later, the whole team regrouped as they stared down the obscured villa. It was safe to say the man, this chieftain, knew how to hide well as the place seemed like your typical getaway and private resort, yet underneath it all they new it was hell; an incarceration. The team moved as a unit toward the facility.

Another shock wave, this one visibly shaking the ground, crashed in a radius formation. The team could tell it came from the building, the sensation strongest from whence it came. It was in a brief moment, a blink of the eye, that the team found themselves to be instantly surrounded. Whatever that second shock wave had been, it had killed off the sonar sensors in Tony's suit as he quickly made for the upper ground.

To say that Tony was speechless would have more than likely made hell freeze over as he yelled at his teammates. "Shit. They're kids! We're surrounded by kids!" His shout quickly made it over the glitching receivers as he flew overhead, now avoiding powers and weapon fire. Of course it wouldn't be easy!

The cross-hairs was crazy as the team on the ground tried avoiding similar shorts coming at them. Quickly, the archer changed tactics, going for traps and disabling mesh arrows as the Captain deflected hits with his shield. It didn't take Natasha very long to try and outmaneuver some of the young children either, quickly grabbing a hold of one and immobilizing their movements before knocking them out.

There was no way the team was going to kill children... Feral children, but children none the less. Their eyes seemed eerily blank as they continued to attack the Avengers almost mindlessly. What the hell was going on? Though blank stared, these kids didn't even seem to have a shred of regret at trying to kill the superheroes. To the team's utter horror, more of these deranged and powered kids continued to appear. The next batch older than the previous. All with collars and beeping, bright red lights.

"We're outnumbered!"

"We need to 'evac!"

 _"No! They're being controlled! Find the source and disconnect them. There's some strange readings I'm coming into."_ Z's voice echoed through to all of the Avengers. Instantly, another file loaded and opened in Tony's dash. This was all circuitry. But how was- Now was not the time to figure that out. No matter how much of a genius the man may be, they needed to immobilize all these kids and teens before he could get to the homing signal.

This was going to take a while.

XOXOXOXO

The team was officially beaten up and split apart. After their battle with the youngster, another armada of controlled or deranged mutants had appeared. Clint wasn't sure what was going on anymore but they couldn't outright kill these kids. Not without good purpose at least. But with a broken receiver, a slashed leg and less than twenty arrows, the archer would probably have to resort to physical strangling if things didn't get better.

Thanks to his good tracking experience, as well as previously surveying the area, Clint had a pretty good idea as to where the rest of his team members were. Unfortunately, he wasn't under the best of circumstances.

A ruffle in the bushes to his left instantly brought him out of his thoughts as a blur crashed into him. Whatever it was, it was heavy, it was fighting and they were rolling down a small cliff. Somehow, Clint had managed to gain the upper hand and gain leverage atop his unknown opponent. And just as he was about to ram the tip of his arrow into his opponent's head, he stopped when he saw the lively and shocked (color) eyes staring at him in return.

This... girl. No. This... woman. She didn't seem vicious and without mind like the rest of them, but lost. There was a confusion in her eyes as she stared at the archer. He stared back, albeit with a glare to his gaze. The red light on her collar was cracked. Blood slowly seeped from a wound near her temple toward her cheek. Scratches and marks littered her barely concealed and dirty body. She had stilled under him, shrinking away from what she may have thought would have been her inevitable end at the end of his hand.

Slowly, Clint limped and retreated off the woman. Her long (color) hair looked almost like a wild (dark/light) flame against her head as she warily sat up. She didn't move like a a normal person either. The way her arms, shoulders, back and legs were all positioned... it was like she was an animal, he noted. But that lost look in her eyes...

The female continued to stare at the male before her. She recognized him as a similar kind to the one with the command. The one with the dark voice. But this one hadn't hit her, no on purpose anyway. He hadn't yelled at her... He also hadn't killed her. What was he?

Slowly, the female crept toward this new male she hadn't encountered before as she experimentally extended a clawed hand. The reverie in which she was free to use and explore quickly died as a noise exploded behind her. Just as she was ready to pounce, the male behind her grabbed her arm and threw her back as he shot something toward the enemy.

A gurgling noise erupted not far from them. (Color) eyes peered reluctantly behind this male in dark colors. Blood seeped from this other's throat as the enemy body fell to the ground. Distaste entered the female's eyes as she noted him to be one of those guards from her cage... Not the alpha, but close enough. And certainly not another... captive.

Her eyes quickly darted to the limping male as he staggered toward the ground. Instinct and reflex made the female move as she, somewhat awkwardly, supported his weight with her arms and chest. She'd never been this close to a male of her kind before... though he was different. Or she was different? She'd never really stood much on her back legs alone much either. She'd always been crouched; on all fours.

Stiffly, and with a calmer tone, Clint told her to help set him down. But something inside him told him she probably didn't understand him much. So he pointed. That seemed to have worked though, because she gingerly (and interestingly) helped him down to a sitting position near a tree. As soon as his back laid against the trunk she skirted a safe distance away.

Another shock wave ran across the ground. Clint scoffed, assuming the worse with each pulse, though they were coming less frequent and with less strength. This one didn't make him drop from his sitting position. A growl caught his attention though.

With shocked eyes, Clint watched as this female held her head in an almost menacing manner as she shook. It was then he noticed that she had some form of bands around her wrists too. A vibration seemed to click and buzz from them as the cracked light of her collar tried blinking back to life. The growl he heard earlier! It was coming form her... but it sounded... inhuman. Well, he guessed she was a mutant already... This was totally insane for him though.

Keeping a close watch on her, Clint noticed how her eyes would change from their normal (color) color to a dark golden color. Flashing back and forth. She was fighting the control, he realized... Unfortunately, she was on the losing side as a ferocious roar escaped her. And ferocious it was, like that of a lion or beast. Dark golden eyes, the whites of her eyes now black glared back at him as he face contorted into a snarl. Sharp canines glinted from her mouth as she crouched and hurled herself at him.

Readying himself to attack or defend, another black blur ran across his vision as growling soon ensued. A large panther, larger than normal growled and snapped it's jaws at the woman. Seeing the panther made the female stop for a moment, again, as confusion showed in her eyes before her already dark fingertips elongated into black claws. The animal and the woman seemed to glare at each other, making hissing noises as if they were communicating somehow before hell broke lose between the two.

Blood sprayed into the air as the two battled it out. Two animals. What seemed to be going on for a lengthy spell only happened in mere seconds as the panther used it's heavy tail to whip at the girl's face.

For a wild animal, Clint could almost see that this panther was holding back as it blinded the female. It kept weaving in and out of her attacks, tiring instead of toying with her. He couldn't be reading this wrong.

It was then that the archer heard the familiar repulsers buzz down behind him. Before Clint could even turn to look at Ironman, the female was thrown too close to his position. With his momentum because of her crazed mind the two latched onto each other again and barreled on the floor, each fighting for dominance. Tony watched, almost bewildered, as a steady and calm black panther circled his partner and the female. But enough of that! Tony shook his head as his face plate lifted.

"Hold her down, Hawk. Gotta turn that shit off!" The man of iron yelled at his companion, who grumbled something about 'easier said than done'. Or something along those lines.

The panther once more, got close before somehow managing to whip his tail at the female's face once more. In that moment, Clint was able to use the momentum to lock her in a hold, as wounded as he was. Managing to almost strangle the air out of her, Tony rushed to their side before running a complete overload on the collar.

Instantly, the cracked light completely exploded. The growling female went limp in Clint's hold. The black panther sat down next to Tony.

What. The. Hell.


End file.
